[CBSnews] Democratic Rep. Jared Moskowitz of Florida disclosed Friday that he was notified by authorities on Monday about a "potential plot on my life" by a convicted felon in possession of firearms.
Moskowitz, who represents the 23rd Congressional District that includes portions of Palm Beach and Broward Counties, posted the allegation on X, which was later collaborated by police in Margate, a city located in the Miami metropolitan area.
The freshman congressman was elected to a second term on Tuesday.
John Lapinski, 41, of Margate, was arrested Oct. 31 at his home after police responded at about 6:30 a.m. to reports of shots fired. He was subsequently detained under the Baker Act, also known as the Florida Mental Health Act and taken to Broward Health Imperial Point in Fort Lauderdale.
A Jew-hating nut? Not exactly original.
He was then moved to the Broward County Jail in Fort Lauderdale on Saturday.
When arrested, Lapinski was also found to be in possession of several guns and ammunition, as well as body armor, police said.
He faces three firearms charges relating to a convicted felon and a domestic injunction.
"During the investigation, our detectives located several firearms and evidence that indicated he may have been planning some type of criminal act," police said in a news release.
The Margate Police Department contacted the Broward Sheriff's Office, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the FBI to assist with the investigation. The ATF is currently the lead agency for this investigation, Margate Police said.
Moskowitz claimed that Lapinski was arrested near the House member's home in Parkland.
"Found with him was a manifesto, among other things, included antisemitic rhetoric and only my name on the 'target' list," Moskowitz, who is Jewish, wrote in his social media post. "There are many other details that I will not disclose as I do not want to interfere with an ongoing investigation."
Lapinski has two prior felony convictions of resisting an officer with violence and grand theft in Lake County.
Moskowitz, 43, serves on the bipartisan House task force investigating the attempted liquidation of President-elect Donald Trump ...So far he's been unkillable, and they've tried.... on July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania.
"I understand the failures and importance of fixing the protection of our current Commander-in-Chief and Vice President," Moskowitz wrote. "At the same time I am deeply worried about congressional member security and the significant lack thereof when we are in the district. Regardless of our political affiliations or differences, we all have families we want to keep safe."
On Tuesday, Moskowitz was elected to a second term, securing more than 52% of the vote against Republican challenger Joseph "Joe" Kaufman, which was a margin of about 17,500 votes.
Moskowitz has touted his ability to work with Republicans. He was elected to the House in 2022 after serving in the Broward County Commission in an appointment by Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Previously, he was Florida's emergency operations manager under DeSantis, including during the pandemic in 2020. Before that, he was a Florida state representative from 2012 to 2019. His first election was in 2006 as a member of Parkland City Commission, which he served in until 2012.
Republican U.S. Rep Carlos Gimenez, also of Florida, said in a statement: "Political violence has no place in our country. This violent mostly peaceful anti-Semitic hate is despicable and must be confronted to the fullest extent of the law. I commend local and federal law enforcement in acting swiftly to ensure the safety of my dear colleague."
[FinancialTimes] Tariff hawk’s potential reappointment to top economy role likely to alarm trading partners
Robert Lighthizer, who was US trade representative when Donald Trump launched his trade war with China, has been asked to take the job again as the president-elect starts to build his cabinet team.
Several people familiar with the discussions inside Trump’s transition team said Lighthizer had been asked to return to the role even though he was lobbying for a different position, including commerce secretary.
Lighthizer had also expressed interest in serving as Treasury secretary, but that position will most likely be offered to a financier, with contenders including the hedge fund managers Scott Bessent and John Paulson.
The possibility of an arch protectionist being reappointed to the pivotal trade role is likely to raise concerns in Beijing, as well as among US trading allies, given how influential Lighthizer was during Trump’s trade wars during his first term. Trump has vowed to impose high tariffs on all imports into the US, particularly Chinese goods.
Trump had considered Lighthizer for commerce secretary but the people familiar with the personnel discussions said the president-elect was most likely to offer that job to Linda McMahon, the billionaire co-chair of Trump’s presidential transition team.
Brendan Boyle, a Philadelphia congressman who is the top Democrat on the influential House budget committee and a senior member of the ways and means committee that oversees trade, said he would welcome Lighthizer’s appointment.
“When Bob Lighthizer was USTR I worked with him on the [US-Mexico-Canada Agreement],” Boyle said. “He was bipartisan in his approach and is well respected on both sides of the [political] aisle.”
It remains unclear if Lighthizer will accept the position. He did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesperson for Trump also did not immediately respond.
Robert O’Brien, who served as national security adviser during the first Trump administration and was viewed as a contender to return to that role or become secretary of state, this week told his private sector consultancy clients that he would not join the administration, said one person familiar with the decision.
Lighthizer was highly regarded by Trump and was one of the few top-level officials who did not suffer his wrath during Trump’s first term.
As Trump’s trade tsar, he presided over a turbulent era for global trade as the administration repeatedly hit its largest trading partners — including its allies — with steep levies and tariffs on billions of dollars’ worth of imports.
A former lawyer for the US steel industry, he frequently clashed with the Geneva-based World Trade Organization, which oversees international trade disputes, calling it a “mess” that had “failed America”.
His appointment would also signal trouble for Nippon Steel, the Japanese company that has proposed a $15bn acquisition of US Steel. Trump has signalled his opposition to the deal, but Lighthizer would almost certainly argue for blocking the acquisition.
Lighthizer spent three decades as an attorney at Wall Street law firm Skadden Arps, where he fought imports from China on behalf of the US steel industry, including US Steel. In the early 2000s, he helped persuade George W Bush’s administration to impose tariffs on steel imports to protect the US industry.
During his previous tenure as trade representative, Washington moved away from trade deals driven by business interests and instead focused on measures designed to reshore manufacturing and protect American workers. Despite this, Lighthizer agreed limited trade deals with China and Japan, and updated the US’s deal with Mexico and Canada.
Writing in the Financial Times just before the US election, Lighthizer blamed free trade for the loss of American manufacturing jobs and called the US trade deficit “alarming”. “Facing a system that is seriously failing our country, Trump has decided that action must be taken,” he wrote.
#3
Trade agreements are going to adjust without US actions, just via names being pushed?
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/09/2024 19:12 Comments ||
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#4
Although the Constitution gives congress authority over tariffs, Congress gave authority to the President to institute tariffs upon a determination by the Dept of Commerce that a tariff would serve a national security purpose. Back in Trumps first term, 9 tariffs were proposed by Trump, The dept of commerce found 7 of them served a national security purpose (including one involving goods from Canada???).
Oddly enough, Biden kept 5 of the 7 tariffs.
Personally, I think the law giving the President tariff authority should have been challenged in court as it seem unconstitutional.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
11/09/2024 19:18 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Personally, I think the law giving the President tariff authority should have been challenged in court as it seem unconstitutional.
Way back in he day, every agreement with a foreign entity, trade agreement or not, had to be ratified by Congress.
Trade agreements we have now are unconstitutional.
What’s going on? They can’t have been clearing the decks before the election to look good for President Trump’s scrutiny, surely.
The commanding officer of Naval Information Warfare Training Group San Diego was fired Thursday.
Cmdr. Cayanne McFarlane was relieved of her duties "due to a loss of confidence in her ability to command," according to a statement from the Navy, which only elaborated further by stating, "The Navy maintains the highest standards for commanding officers and holds them accountable when those standards are not met."
Military.com reported through an unnamed military official that "McFarlane was relieved over a matter of personal conduct that did not involve allegations that would have affected another sailor."
McFarlane assumed command of NITWG San Diego in April of 2023.
She's been temporarily reassigned to Naval Information Forces and Cmdr. Dominic DiMaggio, the executive officer of Fleet Weather Center, San Diego, will serve as NITWG's commanding officer until the Navy can find a permanent replacement.
The announcement marked the second San Diego-based Navy firing in two days.
On Wednesday, Capt. Lester Brown, Jr., commanding officer of Naval Leadership and Ethics Command San Diego, was relieved of his duties, with the Navy also citing "a loss of confidence in his ability to command," a common statement used by the Navy when announcing firings.
#2
Military.com has been running almost weekly, reports of commanders believed, and other bad actors: a Marine GSgt busted for stolen valor, a Navy Lcdr for selling letters authorizing Afghans into the US; getting hard to keep all these bad apples in the one barrel. Glad to see it.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Donald Trump's election win could see a huge influx of illegal migrants into Canada as they flee the US for a state which previously vowed to welcome them.
Canadian police and migrant aid groups are bracing for the arrival of asylum-seekers from the US at the same time they are dealing with record numbers of refugee claimants. Some are likening the anticipated surge to a 'worst case scenario'
President-elect Trump swept to power this week in part on a promise to enact the largest deportation in American history.
Canadian police have been preparing for months, Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sergeant Charles Poirier said on Thursday.
Unlike VP Kamala Harris and the Democrats, the government of Justin Trudeau — he of considerably more hair than wit — expected her to lose? I am seriously impressed that they showed such unanticipated prescience.
'Worst-case scenario would be people crossing in large numbers everywhere on the territory,' he said.
'Let's say we had 100 people per day entering across the border, then it's going to be hard because our officers will basically have to cover huge distances in order to arrest everyone.'
The police chief said his teams had been prepping a 'contingency plan' for Trump's election, warning that it could drive illegal migration and irregular migration into Quebec and Canada.
When Trump first came to power in 2017, thousands of asylum-seekers crossed into Canada between formal border crossings to file refugee claims – overwhelmingly at Roxham Road, near the Quebec-New York border.
Roxham Road is no longer an option: Canada and the U.S. expanded a bilateral agreement so that now asylum-seekers trying to cross anywhere along the 4,000-mile border, instead of only at formal crossings, are turned back unless they meet a narrow exemption.
It comes as Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a huge U-turn on his immigration policy amid dismal ratings for his Liberal Party in the polls as the country buckles under record numbers of migrants.
In July, almost 20,000 people filed refugee claims, according to Immigration and Refugee Board data.
Experts said the figure is the highest monthly total on record and was driven by global displacement.
The number has since dipped, to about 16,400 in September, but remains historically high. There are more than 250,000 claims pending, according to the board.
Trudeau revealed the government will slash the number of immigrants allowed into the country for the first time in years.
Canada is set to allow 395,000 new permanent residents in 2025, 380,000 in 2026 and 365,000 in 2027, down from 485,000 in 2024, according to the National Post.
But migrant aid groups warned that closing off legal routes for asylum only leads to more risky migration practices.
'When you don't create legitimate pathways, or when you only create pathways where people have to do the impossible to receive safety, you know, unfortunately, people are going to try to do the impossible,' said Abdulla Daoud, director of The Refugee Centre in Montreal.
Police are on 'high alert,' Poirier said, prepared to deploy additional resources to patrol the border.
Depending what happens that could mean hundreds more officers. It could also mean more cruisers, chartering buses, building trailers and renting land.
'All eyes are on the border right now,' Poirier added. 'We were on high alert, I can tell you, a few days before the election, and we'll probably remain on alert for the next coming weeks.'
Toronto's FCJ Refugee Centre already serves dozens of new asylum-seekers a week, its founder Loly Rico said.
Trump's election is 'going to impact Canada,' she said. 'We will start seeing more people crossing the border, appearing in cities and looking for support.'
She worries about what will happen in the winter. In 2022, a family of four froze to death trying to cross the border near Emerson, Manitoba.
'It's going to be a challenge for any refugee in the United States to feel that they belong, and that's why they will start looking what other countries can start giving them protection.'
Canada's immigration department 'will continue to prepare and anticipate all possible scenarios, any approach taken will be first and foremost in the best interest of Canada and all those who live here,' Immigration Minister Marc Miller's office wrote in a statement.
#2
LAW ENFORCEMENT TODAY
The article "Michael Letts: Is the 'peaceful transfer of power' a ruse to kill President Trump?", expresses concerns about another assassination attempt BEFORE Trump takes office.
Quoting
"Remember how after 2020 we heard the line again and again: “the most secure election in history”? Well… now we’re hearing another line repeated again and again."
…more fully Muhammad Atif Syed, a Sunni Moslem immigrant from Afghanistan. He was originally said to have killed them because he was angry his daughter married a Shiite. His son, Shaheen Syed A.K.A. Maiwand, who had a habit of beating up his sister, had drivers licenses from Florida and Albuquerque, though he never lived at the Florida address, used a fake address to buy guns, and is thought to have worked with his father in hunting down targets…
was sentenced to life in prison for the 2022 murders of three Muslim men.
In September Syed pleaded no contest to killing Muhammad Afzaal Hussain, 27, and Naeem Hussain, 25. Earlier in the year he was convicted of killing Aftab Hussain, 41. The high-profile crimes left the Muslim Community in New Mexico shaken. Each of the shooting deaths occurred within days of each other. Syed was sentenced to life in prison; he will be eligible for parole after 30 years, at that time he will be 83-years-old.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Photos have revealed NASA astronaut Sunita Williams' shocking weight loss as she and her crewmate remain stuck on the International Space Station (ISS).
Williams, 59, and Barry Wilmore, 61, have been living on the ISS for five months after Boeing's faulty Starliner spacecraft was deemed unsafe to return them to Earth.
A 'gaunt' photo of Williams taken on September 24 recently sparked concerns due to her 'sunken' cheeks which suggested she'd rapidly lost weight.
More recent images also show her with a pronounced facial structure and a thinner frame - a concern given she still has three months until she returns.
Publicly, NASA has said Williams' is 'in good health' and that she's been undergoing 'routine medical evaluations'.
But behind the scenes, the space agency has been scrambling to 'stabilize the weight loss and hopefully reverse it,' according to a well-placed source.
The unnamed NASA employee who is 'directly involved with the mission' told the New York Post that Williams has been 'unable to keep up with the high-caloric diets that astronauts must consume' while on the ISS.
Long-stay space missions take a toll on astronaut's health, especially women, leading to weight loss, muscle breakdown, bone loss, heart and vision problems and kidney stones.
Female astronauts have been found to lose more weight - particularly through loss of muscle mass - than men during spaceflight.
'The pounds have melted off her and she's now skin and bones. So it's a priority to help her stabilize the weight loss and hopefully reverse it,' the NASA source told the New York Post.
About a month ago, NASA doctors began working with Williams to help her regain weight, the source said, even before DailyMail.com's original story brought attention to her deterioration.
To stop and reverse her weight loss, Williams could have to eat up to 5,000 calories per day, the source added.
For comparison, the average woman on Earth has to eat between 1,600 to 2,400 calories to maintain her weight. The source said that Williams started the mission at approximately 140 lbs.
Williams and Wilmore launched toward the orbiting laboratory on June 5 for what was supposed to be a 10 day mission, but have been stuck there for 156 days.
Now, they are set to return to Earth on SpaceX's Crew-9 Dragon capsule. Williams, Wilmore and the four Crew-9 astronauts will journey home together in February 2025.
By then, the Starliner crew will have spent roughly eight to nine months on the ISS, depending on when in February they splash down.
During that time, they will have endured microgravity, close quarters and high doses of space radiation.
#5
As for being "stranded", these guys are professional astronauts. And they're being "forced" to stay in orbit. (As long as the Russian module doesn't go catastrophic, ...)
Posted by: ed in texas ||
11/09/2024 12:29 Comments ||
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#6
5000 calories of salted meat cold cuts is going to give that plumbing a workout.
In which The War Zone shows us three Chinese flying things that are exciting to those who properly understand. After all, one must understand what the competition might deploy. Enjoy!
A new very large jet-powered Chinese drone said to have a 10-ton maximum takeoff weight, or a mockup thereof, has emerged ahead of the formal opening of this year’s Zhuhai Airshow. The design notably appears to be at least depicted as being fitted with a modular payload section designed to launch swarms of smaller uncrewed aerial systems.
Reportedly dubbed Jiu Tian, or “High Sky” in Chinese, the new jet drone design comes from the state-run Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC). The example at Zhuhai, which officially opens next week, is also marked “SS-UAV” in Latin script. While “UAV” (uncrewed aerial vehicle) seems obvious, it is unclear what the “SS” might stand for.
The Jiu Tian has a high main wing with minimal, if any sweep and small winglets at the tips, along with an h-shaped tail. The design is powered by a single jet engine on top of its central fuselage and has a tricycle landing gear arrangement. The combination of features gives the drone, in some very broad strokes, the outward visual appearance of something of a mashup of the A-10 Warthog and OV-10 Bronco attack aircraft.
A sensor turret of the kind typically fitted with a mix of electro-optical and infrared cameras is mounted under the Jiu Tian’s nose. The drone also has a nose radome pointing to provisions for a radar inside.
As noted, there are reports that the Jiu Tian has a maximum takeoff weight of around 10 tons. For comparison, the CH-6 armed drone that emerged at Zhuhai in 2021, another relatively large jet-powered design, is said to have a maximum takeoff weight of 7.8 tons. A year later, AVIC’s Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group (CAIG) subsidiary also rolled out a new Wing Loong 3 pusher-propeller-driven armed drone, the largest member of the Wing Loong family to date, with a stated maximum takeoff weight of six tons. As another reference point, the stated maximum takeoff weight of newer extended-range versions of the U.S. MQ-9 Reaper is just under six tons.
A huge truck-mounted system is one of at least three large mobile ground-based high-power microwave directed energy weapons, primarily intended to down drones, at this year’s Zhuhai Airshow. This underscores a global explosion of demand for counter-drone capabilities, as well as China’s steady progress in the development, fielding, and exporting of microwave and laser directed energy weapons.
Officially known as the China International Aviation & Aerospace Exhibition, the Zhuhai Airshow also provides an opportunity for Chinese and foreign companies to showcase ground-based and maritime offerings. Pictures and videos of various aircraft and other systems have been steadily emerging ahead of the event’s formal opening next week.
The imagery that has appeared online already amid the Zhuhai preparations includes a promotional video from state-run firms China South Industries Group Corporation (CSGC) and Norinco that features footage of two high-power microwave directed energy weapons, as well as other air defense systems.
The first of these is a microwave system consisting of a large planar array mounted on top of an 8×8 light armored vehicle chassis. The system also has small rotating radar, which would make sense for target detection and tracking purposes. The underlying vehicle looks to be the same one used in the Type 625E self-propelled short-range air defense system, or a variant or derivative thereof, another CSGC/Norinco offering also seen in the promotional video.
The CSGC/Norinco video also shows an even larger microwave system, again including a planar array and radar, but this time installed on a Shacman SX2400/2500-series 8×8 truck. This design is seen at the top of this story and below in its traveling configuration.
Pictures of a third high-power microwave directed energy weapon system, which is also mounted on a Shacman SX2400/2500-series truck, have also emerged. This system has its microwave array on a different style of articulating mount at the rear of the vehicle, as well as what looks to be a radar inside a dome on an extendable mast toward the cab end.
China has publicly unveiled the Shenyang J-35A, a land-based stealth fighter that has been under development for some time but which had previously only been seen in unofficial and frequently poor-quality imagery. While we now have a good look at the aircraft, many questions remain, especially about the People’s Liberation Army Air Force’s (PLAAF) plans for it, since the base design was previously understood to be under development primarily for export and latterly also for carrier-based service with the PLA Navy.
The first official photo of the J-35A was released today, ahead of its planned debut at the China International Aviation & Aerospace Exhibition, better known as Airshow China, held at Zhuhai Airport in Guangdong province, in southern China. The show opens on November 12.
The front three-quarter view of the jet, seen taxiing, reveals several new details and sheds more light on features that were previously more hidden. It also provides a very useful comparison with earlier versions of the J-35 and FC-31, as well as with rival fifth-generation fighters.
Much has been made of the similarities between the J-35/FC-31 and the U.S.-made F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, fueling claims that China copied its American counterpart or at least that it made use of stolen data to directly inform the aircraft’s development. While there is no doubt that China has obtained classified data on a range of sensitive Western military programs, and the F-35 program in particular, it doesn’t mean the jet was ‘copied.’ In fact, China cannot ‘copy’ the F-35, it is one of the world’s most complex machines. It can emulate its overall design and knock-off components and certain technologies that it can reproduce and has the data to do so, but the idea that it is a direct copy is blatantly false and a common trope when it comes to comparing foreign military hardware with U.S. designs.
Critical outright differences exist, including its twin-engines compared to the F-35’s large single turbofan engine. While the F-35 was designed from the start to accommodate a short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) version, this requirement is absent from the Chinese design. There are clearly many elements that were at least heavily inspired if not cribbed from the F-35, including its DSI inlets, canopy, and basic configuration. Even its official designation isn’t trying to hide that reality. But overall, despite key similarities, the Chinese design is sleeker and more slender than the F-35. This is largely in part thanks to not having a STOVL requirement, but it also raises questions about its internal fuel capacity and its range, as well as the available volume for internal stores.
Above all else, just because a fighter looks similar doesn’t mean it performs anywhere near the same. This is particularly true when it comes to what lays on and under the aircraft’s skin — especially in terms of avionics and data fusion, sensor technology, and low observable (stealth) structures and coatings. The available engine technology is also a major factor.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...So far he's been unkillable, and they've tried....
